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Chapter 8: Urgency

Captain Sully knows about urgency. Shortly after takeoff, he realized that a bird had been sucked into the engine of his plane. He was going to have to make an emergency landing, but there was nowhere to land! He had 155 people on board, and he had to do something fast. So Captain Sully landed in the middle of the Hudson River!

When the alarms started going off, he acted with a sense of urgency. You may not know it, but the alarm is sounding. Each day 146,357 people die. That is 6,098 per hour, and 102 per minute! The alarm is sounding.

Have you ever had fruit or vegetables that were harvested too early? Too late? Its disgusting. The trick is to harvest them at just the right time. Jesus said that the harvest is ready, but the workers are few.

The harvest "looks like a coworker who starts crying at lunch when you ask her about things at home. It looks like an elderly neighbor who sits by himself on his front porch in the chair next to the chair where his wife used to sit. It looks like an angry boss who asks you why you go to a men's prayer group before work on Thursday morning. It looks like your kid's teacher. It looks like the guy in the 7-Eleven on Saturday night, waiting to spend fifty dollars on lottery tickets, hoping to finally have something that will change his miserable life. It looks like the classmate you've reconnected with on Facebook. It looks like the attractive woman with the low-cut top sitting next to you on the plane and trying to flirt as you discuss the weather. It looks like the young couple at the end of the street who seem overwhelmed taking care of their three little kids. It looks like your alcoholic father. It looks like your teenage daughter who acts like she doesn't want you around only because she needs you so desperately. It looks like the person you're going to eat with at McDonald's next Wednesday because you want to eat with him in Heaven for all eternity."

There was a girl who was awoken by her families grandfather clock, it was ringing 4, but it didn't stop there, it rang 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14! She was so frightened that she ran upstairs and told her family, Get up! It's later than it's ever was!

Are you ready to work? Jesus needs workers who will pray. He wants us to be ask to be sent? Seems kind of silly doesn't it? Why do we need to ask Jesus to send us to do what we already know He wants us to do? "Maybe He wants to know that we want lost people to be saved as much as He does. Maybe He wants to know that we know that without Him, the Lord of the harvest, there would be no harvest. Maybe He wants us to ask Him to send workers because it confirms we understand that we can't do this by ourselves."

Second Jesus needs workers who will go. We can't just sit around and wait for people to come to us. Jesus expects us as a church to GO to the world and make disciples. The best way to reach people for Christ is to go where they are and share Jesus with them.

It's time to get to work, and we need to hurry, because it's later than it ever was.

Enjoy the Journey